Here’s what we’re reading today:
- Eminent Domain, Ultra Vires, and Adverse Possession Walk Into a Bar… – from SCOV Law, a blog about the decisions of the Vermont Supreme Court: “Get ready to dust off your nineteenth-century-property-law hats, folks, cause this case is chock-full of neglected old cases about rail beds, public trails, adverse possession, eminent domain, and railroad corporations venturing outside the realm of their existential purpose.”
- Writ to Watch: Ruggles v. Yagong – from Rebecca Copeland at Record on Appeal, about a case which the Hawaii Supreme Court recently agreed to review. The issue is whether an ordinance adopted by the voters of the County of Hawaii (the Big Island) is preempted by state law. The initiative ordinance made it the official policy of the County to make enforcement of personal use of marijuana the lowest priority for the police and prosecutors. Oh my. The trial court and the court of appeals agreed with the County that the ordinance was preempted by superior state law. Muni law junkies, take note.
- Another one from the Big Island, on our second-favorite topic, quo warranto, Judge rejects motion to dismiss Leithead Todd case. The County Charter requires the Director of the Department of Environmental Management have “an engineering degree or a degree in a related field.” Turns out that the person who holds that position has a JD — but alas and alack — not an engineering degree, so was sued by a Big Island councilmember in quo warranto.
- Small kid time: Views of central-leeward Oahu in 1957, from Ian Lind’s blog. A few photos of what Hawaii used to look like (and still does, in more places that some folks would like you to believe). We know, we were there about then.
- Property Rights Save the Environment – from Defining Ideas, a journal at California’s Hoover Institution. It’s about fracking and the risk associated therewith (“Real, but rare” starts off the piece).
- This Land Is Your Land, Until Dallas Need It – from Texas Monthly, a story about privately-owned land that might be flooded in order to create a new reservior to provide Dallas with water.